Will we run out of fertilizer in the fields? The shortage awaits nitrogenous fertilizers, widely used by farmers in France. To obtain these fertilizers, ammonia is needed, derived from natural gas, whose prices have skyrocketed since the start of the war in Ukraine. At such price levels, profitability plummets for European manufacturers (natural gas accounts for 80% of the cost of ammonia production), who prefer to slow down, or even close, their factories.
The Norwegian giant Yara has closed 65% of its production capacity in Europe indefinitely. The increase in gas “no longer allows competitive sales,” Yara France president Nicolas Broutin confirmed during a news conference on Tuesday.
60% imports
If its French factories are running at full capacity, because they use ammonia imported from the United States or Trinidad and Tobago and do not produce it themselves, the Scandinavian group is preparing to completely cease production at its plant in Tertre, Belgium. However, the Walloon plant manufactures between 20% and 25% of the fertilizers that Yara sells in France, and the Norwegian company has a 45% share of the French market. Yara, in particular, is not the only manufacturer to have announced a drop in production.
France already imports 60% of its nitrogen fertilizers – much of the manufacturing has long since left the territory – and it will not be easy to get more supplies abroad. Supply streams dry up due to lower production; especially since Russia is one of the world’s leading fertilizer producers, and Europeans can no longer turn to it due to the war in Ukraine.
A tense situation for French agriculture, as the period for applying fertilizers to the fields approaches, at the beginning of next year.
Source: BFM TV
